Almost half a million new housing units need to be built in Egypt each year to keep pace with population growth.

According to Sherif El-Sherbiny, Egypt’s Minister of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities, Egypt requires approximately 450,000 new housing units each year to accommodate the growing demand driven by population growth.

In a recent meeting with representatives from the Coordination Committee of Party’s Youth Leaders and Politicians, El-Sherbiny discussed the ministry’s ongoing construction projects in the housing and utilities sectors, as well as its strategies to meet the country’s acute housing needs.

El-Sherbiny emphasised that the Egyptian government is focused on providing diverse housing options to address this growing annual demand. The current goal is to construct 200,000 units, with 150,000 allocated for low-income groups and 50,000 for middle-income groups. He also highlighted the success of the ‘Housing for All Egyptians’ initiative, part of the government’s broader commitment to continuously offer affordable housing to meet spiralling demand.

But the government also acknowledges that the current goal still falls short of demand.

Homelessness in Egypt is a significant social issue and it is estimated that 12 million Egyptians are either homeless or living in makeshift accommodation. The country currently has over 1,200 areas designated for ‘irregular dwellings’ that do not conform to standard building laws, allowing homeless people to build shacks and other shelters for themselves.

Egypt is the most populous Arab nation and Africa’s third most populous country behind Nigeria and Ethiopia. A new baby is born in Egypt approximately every 17.9 seconds, far outpacing the country’s housing development programs.

According to UNICEF, there are around 1 million children living on the streets in Egypt, although other researchers estimate the number could be nearer 3 million.

Birth rates in Egypt have skyrocketed in the past three decades with around 1.5 million babies born every year. Yet, despite the government now encouraging citizens to have smaller families, overpopulation continues to present a myriad of challenges.

Heba El Laithy, a Cairo University economics professor, recently said: “Apart from the physical problems of population density, the social problems are compounded. Poor people tend to bear more children because of the idea that they will help them out socially and economically in the long run.”

“Children are seen as breadwinners as they progress with age and that they will help the parents as they get older,” El Laithy added.

President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi recently stated that, along with terrorism, overpopulation represents one of the two biggest threats to Egypt.

At the time of writing, the population of Egypt sits at approximately 117.512 million, a 61 per cent increase since 2000. The fertility rate (average number of births per mother) is currently at 2.71.

Submitted by Friends of Retha


The Message is the ground-breaking debut novel by Yan Vana, a thought-provoking and critically acclaimed book that will change the way you think about overpopulation and the near future of earth.